PITTSBURGH -- Those who have experienced it say it goes in phases. After you win a Stanley Cup, it's a summer of celebration. Then comes a regular season in which an inevitable rough patch emerges when exhaustion kicks in.
"You crash sometime in November, December or January," said former Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who led the Penguins to a Stanley Cup in 2009. "You don't have any energy. You're walking zombies."
But the best champs persevere and then the playoffs arrive -- another phase and a new life.
"I remember thinking that no team is going to be able to beat us," said forward Dan Cleary, part of the last team to advance to consecutive Stanley Cup finals when the Detroit Red Wings did it in 2008 and 2009.